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They say a band’s sophomore album is the hardest. In this age of music, if your first release flops– that’s it. In Greg Kot’s book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music— my all time favourite book about music– he references Joni Mitchell’s remarks on how, when she was signed, record companies offered multi-album deals. Joni’s first contract gave her something like eight albums. Mitchell claims this allowed her to grow naturally as an artist, hone her writing and musicality. […]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! I spent this Canada Day’s eve as a happy little ex-pat: baking maple cookies, wearing red flannel and unabashedly, albeit ironically, belting out Sloan lyrics– “One thing I know about the rest of my life… I KNOW THAT I’LL BE LIVING IT IN CANADA”. And, while I imagined you all drinking beer on the dock and enjoying your day off, I was toiling away at my desk– not-so-secretly sporting a CANUCK tshirt under my blazer. Classic Canadiana: […]

“I quote from others to better express myself.” – Michel de Montaigne With the emergence of digital sound technology, increasing connectivity and availability, sampling has become a constant in modern musical genres. The digital synthesizer and the internet have made conversations over music intellectual property a never-ending debate. I can certainly sympathize with the artist who wants to protect the originality of their work and ensure payment of royalties. However, there is a popular argument that rises every time some […]

Music and I got off to a rocky start in 2012. Most of the new releases from early 2012 left me underwhelmed. Everyone seemed to be wrapped up in a big electro-techno wave that I was not whole-heartedly on board for. While I see these genres as great platforms for creativity and modernity, the majority of it does little to captivate me. This disheartened attitude took a turn for the better in the summer when I started discovering amazing new […]

At the moment, my friend J is one of the 500,000 or so people in the air. He’s probably just passing over the North Pole right now. As circumstance would have it, I landed at Toronto Pearson this morning and was able to catch J before he took off for a six-month stay in Shanghai. We were sitting in front of this irritating window and he cleverly says: “It’s like Kanye Vision!” I can’t think of a single international airport I’ve been […]